To determine the factors affecting cigarette smoking status after the development of ischemic heart disease, 200 patients were studied who were hospitalized with a coronary event and enrolled in a cardiac rehabilitation program. There were significantly more current smokers (55%) among the 96 patients hospitalized with an initial presentation of a coronary event as compared to the percent of current-smokers (34%) among the 104 patients hospitalized with a recurrent coronary event (p less than 0.01). In addition to the occurrence of a prior event, increasing age also significantly discriminated ex-cigarette smokers from current smokers. Among the patients with a recurrent event ex-smokers (44%) and current smokers (34%) differed significantly with respect to age, education, occupation, negative attitudes towards smoking and peak number of cigarettes smoked. Two models were developed which were able to correctly classify 61.7 and 69.1% of the patients with regard to smoking status.